Movie Star Mystery Photo

Posted on July 25, 2009 by lmharnisch

 Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: As most of you have figured out, this is Grace Bradley, Mrs. Hopalong Cassidy, in 1934. I’m a little pressed for time this morning. More later.

Just a reminder on how this works: I post the mystery photo on Monday and  reveal the answer on Friday … or on Saturday if I have a hard time picking only five pictures — sometimes it’s difficult to choose. To keep the mystery photo from getting lost in the other entries, I move it from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, etc., adding a photo every day.

I have to approve all comments, so if your guess is posted immediately, that means you’re
wrong. (And if a wrong guess has already been submitted by someone else, there’s no point in submitting it again.) If you’re right, you will have to wait until Friday. There’s no need to submit your guess five times. Once is enough. The only prize is bragging rights.

The answer to last week’s mystery star: Annabella!

Los Angeles Times file photo

September 1933: From left, Lona Andre, Ida Lupino, Judge Marshall McComb, Toby Wing, Baby Le Roy and Grace Bradley. They were underage, so a judge had to approve their contracts.

Here’s our mystery gal with some mystery companions — if you get all of them, you’re good.

Please congratulate Mike Hawks, Nick Santa Maria and Suzy Q for correctly identifying her!

Los Angeles Times file photo

Dec. 22, 1935: Grace Bradley’s Barn Party. Rosalind Keith, left, and Grace Bradley “on a hay truck en route to barn party from Bradley’s home in Van Nuys. Yes, movie stars once lived in Van Nuys.

Here’s our mystery gal with a mystery companion. Aren’t these chaps amazing? I didn’t think anyone ever really dressed like that.

The Daily Mirror has some sharp readers! Please congratulate Mary Mallory, John Marshall and Cinnamon Carter for identifying her and her mystery companions in the previous photo.

Los Angeles Times file photo

March 26, 1935: Paramount announces its “proteges” — From left, Grace Bradley and Ann Sheridan, top; Gail Patrick and Katherine DeMille, center; Gertrude Michael and Wendy Barrie, bottom.

What photograph can’t be improved with a little tilting by The Times’ art department?

Here’s another picture of our mystery woman with some more mystery companions. Please congratulate Alekszandr and Lee and Megan Bailey for correctly identifying her. And special congratulations to Mary Mallory who found a copy of the previous image in the Motion Picture Academy Library. Way to go!

Los Angeles Times file photo

Update: Grace Bradley and Ben Bernie, April 21, 1935.

There evidently wasn’t a photograph in the world that couldn’t be improved with some tilting by The Times art department. And utterly unnecessary.

Los Angeles Times file photo

The Times has tons of art on Grace Bradley and I had a hard time selecting just five photos. Here’s one more, from March 21, 1936: Grace Bradley and Marsha Hunt “cavorted in real snow in subfreezing temperatures on Hollywood’s new refrigerated sound stage, designed for the filming of winter scenes in summertime. The stage was used for the first time in photographing Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett in a blizzard scene for Paramount’s “13 Hours by Air.”

About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
This entry was posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo. Bookmark the permalink.

46 Responses to Movie Star Mystery Photo

  1. Mike Hawks says:
    July 20, 2009 at 9:16 am

    The lady is Grace Bradley, who is still with us. Former Mrs. Wm. Boyd Mike Hawks

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  2. Arye Michael Bender says:
    July 20, 2009 at 9:19 am

    A failed Mae West screen test?

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  3. Nick Santa Maria says:
    July 20, 2009 at 9:43 am

    Grace Bradley?

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  4. Nick Santa Maria says:
    July 20, 2009 at 9:45 am

    Grace Bradley?

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  5. annie frye says:
    July 20, 2009 at 9:45 am

    Anna Q. Nilsson?

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  6. Eve says:
    July 20, 2009 at 9:50 am

    I don’t know who she is, but she is ONE tough-lookin’ broad. Don’t try to push your way ahead of HER in line at the Paramount commissary!

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  7. Carmen says:
    July 20, 2009 at 10:29 am

    Ona Munson

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  8. william says:
    July 20, 2009 at 11:09 am

    Margaret Whiting

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  9. lana says:
    July 20, 2009 at 12:25 pm

    Virginia Mayo

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  10. Karen says:
    July 20, 2009 at 12:54 pm

    Ann Sothern ?

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  11. Suzy Q says:
    July 20, 2009 at 1:04 pm

    Is it Fay Wray?

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  12. annie frye says:
    July 20, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    Lillian Harvey?

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  13. Suzy Q says:
    July 20, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    Grace Bradley

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  14. Cinnamon Carter says:
    July 21, 2009 at 3:35 am

    I usually don’t venture a guess with only one picture… but it really looks like Una Merkel. I hope I’m right!

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  15. Rosemarie says:
    July 21, 2009 at 8:59 am

    Jean Acker

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  16. gerald mccann says:
    July 21, 2009 at 9:07 am

    Gertrude Niesen

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  17. Eve says:
    July 21, 2009 at 9:19 am

    Hmm. I spot Baby Le Roy and two ladies who look like Pat Ellis and Toby Wing, but the Mystery Broad is still a mystery to me.

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  18. jany says:
    July 21, 2009 at 9:37 am

    Marjorie Reynolds

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  19. Rance Ryan says:
    July 21, 2009 at 9:46 am

    Minna Gombell

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  20. Steven Bibb says:
    July 21, 2009 at 12:33 pm

    It might be Lona Andre. In the most recent photo I also spot a young Ida Lupino and Toby Wing. That might be Baby Sandy or Baby Leroy.

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  21. Mary Mallory says:
    July 21, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    Grace Bradley.

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  22. Arye Michael Bender says:
    July 21, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    In the group shot, am absolutely certain the woman on the far left is Evelyn Mulwray. Wasn’t she married to the Water Comish?

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  23. Mary Mallory says:
    July 22, 2009 at 12:29 am

    Grace Bradley is the second woman, then Toby Wing, then Pat Ellis I believe. Baby Leroy is sitting on the table. Don’t know the gentleman and can’t see enough of the first woman’s face to say definitely who it is.

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  24. john marshall says:
    July 22, 2009 at 3:07 am

    GRACE BRADLEY, THE LAST MRS WILLIAM BOYD

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  25. Cinnamon Carter says:
    July 22, 2009 at 3:43 am

    The mystery woman is Grace Bradley. Her mystery companions are Lona Andre, Ida Lupino, Toby Wing and Baby Leroy. I am at a loss for their male companion…

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  26. Laura Aikens Goeller says:
    July 22, 2009 at 10:01 am

    Dorothy Fay Ritter

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  27. Mary Mallory says:
    July 22, 2009 at 10:12 am

    Rosalind Keith is wearing the chaps. We have almost the exact pose, and on the back it says, “All Aboard! – Grace Bradley assists Rosalind keith into the hay wagon for the hay-ride that will take them to the “barn” where Grace is giving her barn dance.” Is this about the time she met her husband, Bill Boyd?

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  28. Lee and Megan Bailey says:
    July 22, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    Is it Grace Bradley?

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  29. Alekszandr says:
    July 22, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    Grace Bradley.

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  30. rick says:
    July 22, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    Gertrude Michael

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  31. SandyReed says:
    July 22, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    Nancy Carroll

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  32. gran says:
    July 22, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    Janet Gaynor?

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  33. Dewey Webb says:
    July 23, 2009 at 9:08 am

    (clockwise) Mystery gal, Ann Sheridan, Katherine DeMille, Wendy Barrie, Gertrude Michael and Gail Patrick.

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  34. Rogét-L.A. says:
    July 23, 2009 at 10:23 am

    In picture #4, I’m pretty sure that’s Gail Patrick at middle left, but I have no idea who anybody else is in that photo, much less our mystery gal.

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  35. Christa says:
    July 23, 2009 at 10:53 am

    jeanne cagney?

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  36. Eileen says:
    July 23, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    Paula Stewart?

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  37. Eileen says:
    July 23, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    Is that Lucille Ball – upper right?

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  38. Lee Rivas says:
    July 23, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    Eleanor Powell lower right??

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  39. william says:
    July 23, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    Andrea Leeds

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  40. Dennis A says:
    July 23, 2009 at 3:55 pm

    Barbara Pepper?

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  41. Sue says:
    July 23, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    Grace Bradley Boyd

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  42. Mary Mallory says:
    July 24, 2009 at 9:01 am

    Today Grace is with Ben Bernie.

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  43. Dewey Webb says:
    July 24, 2009 at 11:16 am

    violin player is bandleader Ben Bernie

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  44. Lee Rivas says:
    July 24, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    Will we ever know who the others pictured were. That sure does look like Lucille Ball as Eileen observed.

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  45. Gregory Moore says:
    July 24, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    Sidebar comment: Ms. Bradley is still alive and very well and living in Laguna Beach…one of the last living links to that era. She’ll be 96 in September, and I’m told she’s still very sharp.

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  46. Stacia says:
    July 24, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    Ah nuts, if I’d remembered to check this Thursday I would have seen the “Come on Marines” pic and figured it out. Promo pictures of the girls in that film are very popular on film blogs, as you can imagine.

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